Edited by Neil Lunt, Daniel Horsfall and Johanna Hanefeld

The growth of international travel for purposes of medical treatment has been accompanied by increased academic research and analysis. This Handbook explores the emergence of medical travel and patient mobility and the implications for patients and health systems. Bringing together leading scholars and analysts from across the globe, this unprecedented Handbook examines the regional and national experiences of medical tourism, including coverage of the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The chapters explore topics on issues of risk, law and ethics; and include treatment-focused discussions which highlight patient decision-making, patient experience and treatment outcomes for cosmetic, transplantation, dentil, fertility and bariatric treatment.

Chapter 37: Hospital accreditation and medical tourism

Handbook Chapter

Abstract

Hospital accreditation began almost 100 years ago as an assessment scheme for surgical training in the USA. It developed as a broader, professionally driven institutional assessment and improvement system and is now established in more than 50 countries. Since the turn of the century several international programmes have become available across national borders. Most accreditation programmes assess compliance with published standards across an entire hospital, but some offer certification of specific services. ISO certification commonly uses standard 9004 to assess quality management systems (not specific to healthcare), or 15189 which is specific to medical laboratories. DNV accreditation is based on ISO 9004 adapted to the healthcare setting. Several countries have regulatory systems for compliance with mandatory national standards which are comparable to voluntary accreditation programmes. The value to medical tourism of accreditation and similar external assessment systems lies in reliable independent verification of a hospital’s compliance with validated organisational standards. The criteria, procedures and level of detail in published findings vary between programmes, but are more consistent within programmes which are themselves accredited by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare, ISQua.

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